Chelsea looking to offload foreign player to conform to rules in Premier League and Champions League

On the way out? Goalkeeper Petr Cech is one player who could be sacrificed as Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho looks to off load a foreign player to satisfy Premier League and Champions League quotasPhoto: ACTION IMAGES

Despite selling Romelu Lukaku and loaning Christian Atsu to Everton, and loaning out Oriol Romeu and Marko Marin in the past month, Chelsea still have one too many foreign players over the age of 21 in their 25-man first-team squad.

Having moved on most of his fringe players, Mourinho faces a tough decision over which foreign star to axe.

Clubs are allowed 17 foreign players over the age of 21 in their squads that are registered once the transfer window shuts at the end of the month.

Chelsea have spent the summer looking to offload flop striker Fernando Torres, but have not managed to find a club willing to match his asking price or £175,000-a-week wages.

“We have one problem to resolve, that we have one extra foreign player at the moment and Victor is not a foreign player,” said Mourinho.

“Victor is from a position where we have many solutions.

“We have Hazard, Willian, Salah and Schürrle. Victor’s best position is from the sides, but he is English and at this moment we have one foreign player who has to leave.

“So, until the end of the month, we have to make that decision and Victor is involved in this process, and maybe stays or maybe leaves, but because he is home-grown he is something we have to analyse as well.”

Mourinho is delighted with how his squad are shaping up ahead of the new season and believes they have the capacity to be successful for 10 years.

“We have the squad that we want to have, we don’t say it’s perfect, we don’t say it’s the best, we say we like very much our squad,” said Mourinho.

“It’s a squad for tomorrow, for next season and also a squad with big possibilities for the next five, 10 years with so many young people. So I like my squad very much.”

Didier Drogba injured an ankle in last weekend’s friendly against Ferencvaros, but Mourinho has not yet given up hope of him being in the Chelsea squad for Monday night’s game against Burnley.

“He is good,” Mourinho said. “I don’t want to say ready on Monday, but the quality of our medical department and the mentality that he has, I’m not saying it is impossible for him to recover for Monday.”